It is often necessary or desirable to use tables and other furniture in cramped or close spaces. For example, sailboats, yachts, recreational vehicles, campers, and like vehicles and structures often lack large spaces where bulky furniture such as tables might be kept. This is particularly so in the cabins of such structures, which typically constitute main living areas and in which it is often critical to maintain as much open or useable space as possible--although such cabins typically represent the largest spaces available, they are barely large enough to accommodate furniture items such as tables. The problem is particularly acute where it is necessary or desirable that tables or furniture be permanently or semi-permanently installed.
Folding tables and furniture have been seen as an answer to this problem. Many folding tables, chairs, etc., are known. In the case of sailboats, for example, a well-known solution has been to provide tables capable of folding down the middle, as shown in FIG. 1. Prior art table 10 of FIG. 1 comprises leaves 11, center panel 12, structural support assembly 13, and legs 14. Center panel 12 is rigidly and permanently attached to structure 20 by means of support assembly 13, while leaves 11 are attached to the center panel by hinges 15 and legs 14 are pivotally attached to the center section. When not in use, the table is "stowed", to the extent stowage is possible with such arrangements, by rotating legs 14 about pivots 16 so that they are more or less aligned beneath center section 12 and letting leaves 11 drop to the vertical by hinges 15. Center section 12 being monolithic and rigid, the greater portion of the bulk of the table is left to occupy the cabin or other space in which the table is mounted, with both center section 12 and large leaves 11 blocking relatively large portions of what might otherwise be open passage or storage space, or space generally available for other uses. For use the table is erected by lifting leaves 11 roughly to the horizontal and rotating legs 14 so that their horizontal portions 17 support the leaves in an approximately horizontal position. It is characteristic of such tables, however, that support legs 14 never quite succeed in bringing or holding leaves 14 horizontal; there is invariably some downward slope to the leaves which results in at least inconvenience to the user, and sometimes in the practical unusability of the table. For example, the placement of vessels containing fluids on non-level surfaces is at best problematical, particularly when the table is in motion, as for example when it is installed on a boat on the open water, pitching and rolling with the waves. It is also inevitable that the problem is exacerbated by the tendency of gravity and any loads induced by objects placed on the table to push the leaves of such tables down out of and away from the horizontal.
Another approach to the provision of permanently or semi-permanently mounted tables in limited spaces is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,104 to Young. The table disclosed in the Young patent comprises a dual-section hinged table top supported by a pair of highly curved legs. For stowage, a free end of the table is released to hang downwards and the pair of curved legs are slid through a pair of support slots into a position beneath a bench or other structure, so as to be more or less out of view and out of the way of activities carried out before the bench, etc. The table would appear to be both relatively clumsy and relatively difficult to use, however, and prone to various mechanical difficulties (as for example the jamming of the legs in their support slots) and to the same gravitational difficulty as the previously-described prior art table--namely, that the hinged portion of the table top will rarely achieve an entirely horizontal position, as both gravity and the loads induced by any objects placed on the tabletop will tend to deflect the tabletop downwards out of the vertical.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,574 to Collins discloses a relatively conventional wall-mounted table comprising a substantially monolithic, rigid tabletop. For storage the Collins table requires a free wall area at least as large as the largest tabletop section, thus occupying wall space which might, particularly in space-limited vehicle applications such as boats, be well put to other use.
Largely the same difficulties, for applications in which limited space is available, arise in the use of the tables disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,158 to Ford and U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,272 to Wilmore. Each of these references discloses a table comprising relatively large, rigid table top sections which must be accommodated in some fashion by the structure in which it is stored. Moreover, the Wilmore table discloses no means for securing the table inside a vehicle--which can, in the case of such tables, be a crucial requirement, as for example (as noted above) where the table is to be used in a moving vehicle such as a floating boat.
Yet another approach to the stowage of tables in limited spaces is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,315 to Huggins. Huggins discloses a foldable table comprised of a series of radially disposed leaf members pivotally mounted about a central column member and supported by folding brackets. As regards the type of applications contemplated herein, however, the table disclosed by Huggins is subject to the same difficulties with gravity and tabletop loads as the other tables discussed, and in addition, the mechanism of the Huggins table is relatively bulky, with brackets, beam support members, and radial leaves being folded into the same space, so that the table would appear to occupy more space than is strictly necessary when folded. Moreover, the leaf assembly of the table top appears to be less than ideally suited to providing a substantially flat table top surface, inasmuch as its multitudinous leaves could not reasonably be expected to align reliably on repeated openings and closings; and the mechanism itself would appear to be both complex and relatively difficult to operate, and expensive to build. Finally, the configuration disclosed carries with it inherent limitations as to the size of the table, and an inherent use limitation in that a column member is necessarily located in the center of the table. Thus even if the Huggins table were adapted for use in connection with a mast or other carry-through post or column, such as is likely to be encountered in a boat, the mast or post would invariably be immovably rooted in the center of the table, limiting the table's usefulness.
There has heretofore not been disclosed any table overcoming all of the aforementioned difficulties. There remains a need for a foldable table which is easy to operate, which incorporates a simple, uncomplicated inexpensive mechanism, which folds into a very small space, which does not require the presence of a post or column in the center of the table surface, which folds repeatedly and reliably to a substantially horizontal, planar configuration, and which may be economically produced, installed, and maintained.